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May 27, 2013

Berlin!

Spending
a few days in Berlin confirms for me this great city's reputation as a creative
centre. I have long wanted to visit Berlin; amazingly in all my European
travels of the past, the opportunity never presented itself.

This first stay in Berlin was only a
few days, but even in that short time there were many chances to feel the
creative energy and to experience some diverse musical events. Upon arrival, I
of course took a little walk around the "Mitte" area just to get
oriented. My timing was lucky, arriving at the Berliner Dom just in time for an
Evensong service at which the Stuttgart Boy Choir
"Knabenchor collegium iuvenum" sang. A very high level of
music-making.

The next day was a trip to the outskirts
of Berlin to the MoBe culture house, where Moving Poets Berlin is based. This is a space
where artists of diverse fields have the opportunity to create interesting
projects. The occasion for my visit was to watch a "Ha! man
performance". The "Ha! man" performs on various
instruments, and uses movement and visual projections as well to create a
captivating experience for the audience. Beginning with simple mouth sounds
into a microphone, he gradually moves through space towards his cello,
keyboard, and laptop, from where the sounds expand into a musical collaboration
with himself. Lots of pleasing sounds, musical textures and colours arise. A
most exciting moment in his performance is when he offers a white plastic
schoolchild's recorder to a randomly chosen audience member and invites her
forward to improvise over the musical support he has crafted.

I felt very drawn into Ha-man's creation
in the first half of the evening and quite wish he had left it at that. The
second half did not take the magic he created any further, so unfortunately the
audience began to feel like they had had enough. This affirms my current
conviction in my own programming, that an hour or 70 minutes is an optimal
length for a performance. It is very difficult to re-gather the audience and
build the energy again after an intermission.

That is, unless you are the Berlin
Philharmonic. I attended a performance at the Philharmonie (which felt like a
trip to Mecca) of the Beethoven 4th Symphony and the Nielsen 5th Symphony.
Herbert Blomstedt conducted, and thrilled the audience. What a joy to be in the
presence of this music, performed at the highest level.